A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire

by Lily D.

Inspired by “The Little Mermaid” and the legend of Atlantis, this first book in a fantasy romance series is perfect for fans of Stephanie Garber, Sarah J. Maas, and Elise Kova.

An enemies-to-lovers romance amid impending doom intertwines the destinies of a mermaid princess and a brooding warrior, unraveling a legendary empire and igniting heart-rending consequences.

The cold underwater palace has never truly felt like home for Aria, the crown princess of the merfolk. Craving freedom from her golden cage, she defies her father's rules and embarks on a perilous journey beyond the forbidden city limits.

There, she discovers a long-forgotten map leading to the place of her dreams: the ancient human empire brimming with unthinkable power and forged by a fearless warrior society. Atlantea. But her plans to explore Atlantea are met with fierce resistance when her father assigns a mysterious and brooding warrior as her protector.

As unforeseen challenges arise, Aria's determination intensifies, driving her toward a series of choices that will prove to be both transformative and costly. Against all odds, Aria manages to find the idyllic island of Atlantea, where she crosses paths with a roguishly alluring human prince and saves him from a sure death.

As Aria embarks on an extraordinary journey of love and self-discovery and gets swept away, she’ll soon realize that not everything is as it seems in this captivating paradise.

Some choices come at a dear cost that she may not be prepared to pay. "A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire" is a fascinating YA Christian fantasy series that will transport readers into a world where love triumphs against all odds.

With its riveting story, slow-burn romance, enemies-to-lovers dynamics, and a guaranteed happily ever after,

This book is perfect for those seeking an enthralling tale that will leave them breathless. Immerse yourself in this enchanting adventure and discover the power of love and destiny.

Genres: Fantasy, Retellings, Christian Fiction

ebook

Published November 1, 2023

Reviews

[Claire]

For anyone planning to read this : The cover is AI made, the content is AI made. Don't allow this.

[Jennifer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I loved the cover and was excited about this one and then I started it and it dragged and dragged with no real plot and the characters felt one dimensional. There wasn’t enough world building and nothing interesting enough to keep me engaged.
I would not recommend this book.
Thanks BooksGoSocial via NetGalley.

[Héloïse ☾ · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the worst books I've ever read.

The summary promised a lot : action and fantasy (after all, we're talking about mermaids and lost empires!). But no, nothing like that. I didn't really find what I was looking for. And I realised this from the very first chapters, in chapter 4 to be exact, when Aria (very close to Ariel tho) finds the lost empire. I thought it was lost but apparently one map later and two days (only) of swimming and it's actually right there.

Aria is a weathervane. I often find female heroes like that, but Aria takes the cake. Her heart sways between Bastian and Atlas throughout the book, and every two minutes she is shocked, disappointed and deeply hurt by the behaviour of both (even though Bastian has often done nothing, poor fellow). Atlas deserved to be left in a ditch but no, two lines later she smiles at him again after staring at him with disdain for two pages.
Aria is very childish, naive and doesn't serve much purpose other than to start a conflict with an empire, all because she doesn't like staying in her underwater kingdom, you see, she's bored.

What's more, and this is my personal opinion, the whole Christian aspect of the book bored me to tears. If I'd wanted to read a book like that I'd have clicked on the "Religion and spirituality" and on "Christian" tags on Netgalley, not on fantasy. Since when do mermaids believe in God? This is fantasy, all right, but that's the point. Leave the mermaids alone and don't make them believe in the existence of angels. I never asked Bastian to recite the Bible to me or give me sermons.

Even these aspects wouldn't have bothered me if they had been well done. The question of purity, children and finding one's way is ok, but just throw sermons into the mix and it spoils the whole point you're trying to make.

Thank you to Lily D., BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.

______

I'm 30% and it's one of the worst books I've ever read.

[Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire was a promising retelling Little Mermaid also first book into fantasy adventure under the blue sea. The story following Princess Aria who yearned for glimpse of freedom and big adventures.

The writing is okay but the POV choice only scrapes top layer information from all the potential this type world building could offer.
I wish more conversations between other characters and real action not only telling.
Although the cover is wellmade, beautiful and eye catching. The plots, the characters, the world and the romance are brimming with potency but felt cliche, underdevelopment and predictable.

Thank you Netgalley and Books Go Social for provided me with this ebook. My thoughts and opinions are my own.

[h · Rating 1 out of 5]

The little amount of the dialogue from this book made me put this book (re:dnf), and maybe i can give it a try later.

However, Thank You Netgalley and publisher for this ARC!

[Manda Rodriguez · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sadly disappointed. I haven't given a single star in a long time...

I feel like I had reasonable hopes for this book. Judging from the cover and the description, I was intrigued. A Little Mermaid and Atlantis retelling with a Christian perspective? Sounds fun. Sounds like there is a lot of possibility there. Five stars to whoever wrote that description, because it sure wasn't the author!

I anticipated that this read was targeted for a younger audience (Maybe 10-13 based on the cover design), and set my critics eye accordingly. I thought I would read it with my niece in mind and maybe find another good read for her shelf. I honestly think my niece could have written a better book.

Who is Lily D.? I could not find any info on this author. Is she also a teenager? That would explain why the characters were so childish and sounded like they have never been on a date. Is the author AI like other reviews are suggesting? That would explain why the story was so generic and flat. Is the author even a Christian? Because while the plot hinged around a lot of christian themes, there was no passion or heart to back them up.

Examples of eyerolls:
> Many Christian themes are brought up in this book, and none of them have any depth. One example is a discussion of purity. I'm going to summarize this part for you, but after a tickle fight (I'm not joking) the main character says "I'm ashamed to admit it, especially given my age, but I've been saving myself for marriage." (Great! This is a choice that many Christians make, including myself... So why are we ashamed to admit it?) The male main character reassures her by saying he's a virgin too. (Is this because the author wants them both to be "pure" or because they want the characters to understand each other? We won't ever know because it is not talked about further). The discussion on the why is SO cringy. Both basically saying it is a choice that someone else encouraged of them to make, and that this way of purity ensures there are no "repercussions." (barf). That is a really big commitment to take on just to please others and avoid pregnancy out of marriage. If you're going to include that in the book, you better be prepared to share your beliefs at a heart level, don't use something like this to instill fear in young teenage girls and boys.

>The rest of the Christian discussions (and there were many), sounded like they were straight up copied from a kids bible. The illustrated ones with the most generic sugar-coated summaries of the story.

> The dialogue. Every conversation was so boring. The sentences were short, and they would slip out of modern and old-fashioned ways of speaking. It was strange. The flirting was BRUTAL. It sounds like they are 10 years old, showing off and tickling and getting jealous over the silliest things.

> The gender roles. Right off the bat, it bothered me that while the two main characters are close in age, the boy has to protect the girl. The girl is weak, and precious, and cannot be trusted to care for herself. The boy is strong and handsome and comes from a good family and fast and hired to protect the girl. Then I thought maybe this was a tie in to Little Mermaid with a strict dad, but even Ariel shows gumption though the story. The main character always felt like a damsel in distress, with a big strong body guard to protect her. At one point, he is teaching her to defend herself and she defeatedly says "You're absurd. No one can tackle you! Not even a whale." -- This teenage merman is stronger than a whale? please stop. The Bible is FULL of stories of smart, capable, heroic women. If you have the audacity to use biblical themes in your book, the character traits should match.


If you're looking for an adventure with a christian perspective, don't read this book. Read the Bible instead.


While this was not my favorite book, I truly appreciate Net Galley for selecting me for this eARC, and the opportunity to share my honest thoughts and opinions.

[sairs_readsandreviews · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read this as an arc on netgalley and at the time, it wasn't available on goodreads or for sale anywhere. I did not finish this book as I was uncomfortable with the themes which are described in my review below:

I didn’t see that this was a Christian fantasy until after I’d downloaded it. I was intrigued to see how this might affect the plot overall, knowing that some Christians believe that a lot of fantasy like witchcraft etc to be against their religion.

It took me a while to get round to the book and I couldn’t find any information about it anywhere other than on netgalley which I thought was odd. It doesn’t appear to be for sale anywhere or on goodreads. The author has such a generic name that it’s also not traceable. This made me wonder if it was ai written or something else was going on here.

The story is a little mermaid retelling with Aria, the main character essentially having the same issues as in the Disney film where she is bored in her own kingdom, kept at bay by her father and not allowed to roam.
We later meet Bastain or Sebastian who is appointed as her guard who she is desperate to shake off as she wants to explore the world.

Aria roams to Atlantea in search of the place her deceased mother had visited and told her about.

The story begins to feel like an allegory for modern life by about 35% in and societies movement towards secularism. The book comments on greed and wealth and technological advances in Atlantea being the reason they are bad and no longer peaceful, and have moved away from grace. The themes and storyline were ok in that it was a simplistic romance, easy to follow along and to start with despite the dedication being very clear this was written by a Christian author, I didn’t find it too difficult to read. Yes there were moments where the discussion revolves around darkness and light and God, and also how things related to fortune telling / potential witchcraft were ‘wrong’ but honestly there is often a myriad of religious detail in many fantasy books I’ve read, so I sort of brushed it off although it could be seen as a bit of a sermon if you disliked it.

There were some cliched elements and I guessed what was going to happen, I don’t think this was groundbreaking storytelling.
But I did like the premise of a retelling as well as Atlantis being included.

What I did stop at was what I felt was thinly veiled racism in this book. The author described how Atlantea had been ‘tainted’ by the other kingdoms it had conquered. Going as far as to say that it was like water that had been tainted by ‘dark tea’; false religions and gods. Given that this book felt like allegory to me, this just did not sit right with me and I felt whilst it wasn’t outright saying this was the problem with modern society, I felt the parallels previously made between Atlantea and modern society and the implications of this statement were too much to ignore.

I personally wouldn’t recommend this book.

[Mia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a free ebook of this book on netgally in exchange for an honest review.

I tried to read this, honestly I did.
I do 2 things - read a lot of fantasyand use chatgpt a lot. And I just kept getting the feeling I was reading chatgpt output… edited of course but her character was just so inconsistant and petulant. The overall story too was very much like ‘act as a writer and outline me a story crossing the little mermaid, atlantas and the odessy’. Then the ‘retelling’ is practically just describing different scenes and copying and pasting scenes/ideas from different film/book into the book just slightly changing the letters of the names by 1-2 letters. I felt not like I was reading a book relaxing, but that I was working, reading chatgpt’s instructions and it helps me in my job. I could honestly be wrong here and it might just be the style of the author itself, but it just feels so much like it.

Then the main character - perhaps children could relate to how she acts (like she is 10) but it is just so unrelatable. My theory of course is the book is heavily written by chatgpt which could definitly cause that (eg prompting it to be in the YA genre).

I see other reviewers complained about the religious tones - I have to say I did not get that far that it bothered me, but I did take another look at the summary and it says ‘christian ya’ at the very end. If I am requesting a book, I do not read the full summary as there will be spoilers - if the top part draws me in, I will read it and enjoy it and not get half the book spoiled. ‘Christian ya’ is such a divisive thing, it needs to be front and centre and the book needs to have been tagged with this.

I am really sad the book is like this.. i should have checked others reviews prior to submitting a request for this. I would say i should read the full summary as well, but to be honest - this one is on the author/publisher I think. If it is a 'christian' book, this needs to be in the tags and in the beginning of the synopsis.
If this was not co-written with chatgpt then I am sorry for this review. I just get the very strong feeling from how the wording and phrasing is as well as the content itself that it is heavily AI written.. (which there is honestly nothing wrong with, but it should probably be acknowledged as there will likely be no copyright protection on this either)

[Leah Willemsen · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a disappointing read for me. I was taken aback by the fact that the book had strong Christian undertones. Admittedly, I don't always read the entire summary, so I may bear some responsibility for missing this note but I feel like this should have been emphasized more in the description. The only note is at the bottom of the summary as "fascinating YA Christian fantasy series", which is easily overlooked or missed.

There was an excessive focus on Aria's surroundings. Every little detail was described in lengthy paragraphs, making it a tedious experience to read. Instead of progressing the plot or character development (which I still feel never happened), we seemed to be caught in a never-ending description of the environment.

The romance in the book felt extremely unrealistic, lacking the engaging banter that I typically enjoy in a good romantic story. The book's saving grace was its attractive cover, but sadly, that wasn't enough to salvage the reading experience.

Throughout the book, I found myself wanting to put it down many times. It became evident that this story is primarily aimed at a younger audience, and the main character, Aria, felt incredibly immature for her supposedly more advanced age (past the age or typical marriage arrangements). Her actions and thought processes made it difficult to connect with her as a character, and I found her portrayal to be more fitting for a character of around 12 years old.

Ultimately, this book did not meet my expectations, and I wouldn't recommend it to readers looking for a more mature and believable romance story. I will not be continuing this series unfortunately.

[nerdy.bookdragon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was looking for a light read and something fun, maybe with a hint of romance. This book delivered, straight up what I needed.

Unfortunately I don't live close to the sea, but I do have a river flowing not so far from my home, and since the sea was the home to many characters I could feel all the lovely memories I have resurface.

I loved many many things about this book, I loved the characters, I loved the plot, I loved the angst, the romance, I could not put it down, I have started this book last evening, stayed up until midnight to read and my first thing in the morning was to continue and I finished the book in basically one place.

[Taylor McKay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love the concept of retellings and if done well the book can become a really great read. The book had a great flow but the storyline had moments of holes and confusion. I wish this was an easier to get through read, but it took a moment to get into. This would a great book for younger readers wanting a fantasy that doesn’t have any spice. 2.5⭐️

[Megan Michelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a difficult read. It felt fake way too much description and not enough speaking text. Very rough read

[Phoebe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Many thanks to the author, NetGalley and to the publishing company for letting me have the opportunity to review this book and to provide my honest review.

I was really hooked in by the cover and the description of the book. I really enjoyed retellings of the Little Mermaid and could not wait to get started on this book.

Unfortunately I was unable to get into this story. This story was long and very descriptive with hardly any conversations between the characters. For most of the story I was skipping past the dialogue as most of it did not add towards the story. I unfortunately DNF this at 30%. The plot was non-existent as there was so much description. With what I did read, it also felt like the author had used certain scenes from the Little Mermaid and altered them slightly.

This book really disappointed me however I did enjoy finding out more about Arias mother. I really wish I could have read more of this but I was just skimming and missing parts out.

[Kelly | Bookmarks 'n Blankets · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4

I chose to read this ARC because I had read some wonderful Christian historical romance books and really enjoyed them. So, I wanted to check out a Christian romance fantasy book. I also really enjoy fairytale retellings, and this is a Little Mermaid retelling that also incorporates Atlantis.

I really had mixed emotions with this novel. On the one hand, I really liked the story, characters, and romance, but on the other, it had a lot of technical writing problems.

Overall, the story concept was rather intriguing. I loved the twists of The Little Mermaid in this retelling. I also loved the general messages in this book. It’s pretty based, so if you don’t lean conservative in some of your viewpoints, then you probably won’t like it. But I really appreciated it since it aligns with my personal view on things.

It also is pretty strong on the faith element, which I enjoyed. I don’t consider myself a Christian, but I am spiritual and enjoy the faith undertones here and there because I agree with the messages portrayed. If you don’t align with many Christian viewpoints, you may find this book a bit preachy, but since I do, I liked it and didn’t find it preachy. But I could see how others would. I’m not familiar with the bible, but I feel like there were references to it, but it was lost on me.

The romance is pure and sweet. It is a clean romance - no spice and just a couple of kissing scenes. I prefer clean romance, so I was happy with the love story aspects of it. I really enjoyed the banter and chemistry between Aria and Bastian. There is also very mild language, which I appreciated. If you enjoy these romance tropes, then you’ll like this one: enemies to lovers, grumpy/sunshine, bodyguard romance, and a love triangle.

The world-building was done pretty well with rich descriptions, but I would’ve liked to have gone deeper. I wanted a lot more details and really wanted to be immersed in this world. I wanted to know more about the Merworld as well as Atlantea. I felt like we just skimmed the surface of both, and I wanted more information. We also didn’t get much backstory about the prophesies they spoke about, or the history of Aria’s mother, her father, and just how her parents came together. I would’ve loved more of their backstory.

For the most part, I liked Aria as our main protagonist. She really reminded me of Ariel. She is young, naive, and adventurous. But of course, she’s also strong-willed, stubborn, reckless, and selfish. She is only concerned for her own well-being at the start, and she just wants her freedom. She feels trapped in the underwater palace and in her role as a princess, heir to the throne. She also feels like a prisoner by her father, and she just wants to live her life on her own terms. She wants to make choices for herself and make her own way in life. So she becomes extremely rebellious, sneaking out of the palace all the time, lying, and making poor choices. In the beginning, she doesn’t think about her actions and how they affect others. But we do see a nice redemption arc and character development as we move through the story. By the end, she has seen “the error of her ways.” We see her grow and mature more and think about her choices and how they affect others, especially her loved ones.

I really liked Bastian, one of Aria’s love interests, and her personal bodyguard. He seemed like the ideal man and always gave her a lot of wisdom. He was honorable, intelligent, clever, and kind. He was always there for her and kept forgiving Aria when she would lie and betray him. He reminded me of Michael in Francine River’s Redeeming Love. Bastian was extremely loyal to Aria and her father. We see how he is always there for Aria, even when she’s being a brat and constantly making poor decisions. He’s very patient with her and does everything he can to protect her.

However, there were a lot of plot holes, some scenes didn’t make sense, some time jumps were confusing, some transitions between scenes were poorly written, some dialogue was poorly written, and some reactions to things that were happening didn’t make sense to me. Again, I loved the concept of this story, but it was underdeveloped and needed more polishing and refinement. The beginning was intriguing, but then it really slowed down in the middle, and then in the last quarter of the story, it picked up again. I wish it was more consistent in the storytelling throughout the entire novel.

I also wished there was more action. There were many scenes where not much was happening. I also wanted to see more of the Merworld and Atlantis. I wish more action scenes happened in the cities. I also wanted to see more magic and creatures or monsters. It did feel like a fantasy novel, but it really lacked some typical fantasy elements that I like to see in these types of stories. Also, the ending was decent, but it was still a bit lackluster and anticlimactic for me. I wish it was bigger, more suspenseful, and had more action. But it was a satisfying ending.

With all the faults it had though, I really enjoyed the story, the characters, and the romance and chemistry between the two main protagonists. If this is the start of a series, I would absolutely continue and pick up book two. I’d love to see where the story goes next, and hopefully, with more time and experience, the technical writing problems will improve and be more polished. If you enjoy Christian romance fantasy stories and fairytale retellings, I would recommend this book.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. These are my own thoughts and opinions.

[Abbey · Rating 3 out of 5]

ARC review in exchange for my honest opinion Some aspects are similar to The Little Mermaid
A lot of religion talk for a mermaid book
Some banter weird
She was stringing both guys along
All over the place

[Lupi_reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're a fan of The Little Mermaid and any stories about Atlantis: The Lost City, then this is definitely your book.

Aria is next in line to rule over the merfolk, but despite being the crown princess, the underwater palace where she resides is more of a prison than a home. Aria craves nothing more than freedom and adventure, and that's when she breaks her father's rules by escaping to Atlantea; The ancient human empire that she always longed to discover alongside her assigned guardian; Bastian. She manages to save the life of Atlantea's prince but as she waves with him and Bastian through the city of her dreams, she discovers that it may or may not be as dreamy as she has been told. Secrets, lies, and betrayals lay in her path and she must uncover them for the sake of love and self-discovery.

I have always enjoyed books about merfolk, I find this particular sub-genre to be fascinating, especially the world-building. So this book did wonderful in that particular aspect, I found myself enjoying the description of the wondrous underwater kingdom.
However, I found it boring because, at some point, we were almost halfway through the book and we were still not close to knowing what the problem was. All we kept reading about was an endless description of Aria's surroundings, every little thing needed to be described in a whole paragraph which was tedious to read. And as much as I appreciate how intricate and detailed it was, it felt kind of repetitive. But then the book started to pick up the pace and we started seeing more action. But towards the last couple of chapters, things felt rushed, I didn't get to understand what took place as things started to happen quickly, which was a huge change from the rest of the book, and I actually couldn't see the logic behind some things at all.

I didn't like the love triangle, I don't know if it was mentioned in the blurb, but the love triangle made me wince. I loved the character of Bastian most; I could never believe how kind, forgiving, and graceful he was. He was the embodiment of perfect, which is the exact opposite of Aria; she was selfish, and immature and did anything and everything in order to get what she wanted no matter what the cost, I think her motto would be; It's better to ask forgiveness than permission.

All in all, I think this book is not for people who are advanced fantasy readers, this would suit anyone who's being introduced to the fantasy genre. I don't expect someone who's read an 11-book fantasy series to like this. This read is something you recommend to someone who's being introduced to Fantasy. They don't have to be overwhelmed with lots of material.

The idea is there, I liked the concept of the book, but the plot wasn't as impressive as the book cover or the summary. I give this 2 stars because this book had the potential to be something wonderful, but too bad it missed the mark.

Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to provide a review of this book.
#AMermaidTaleoftheLostEmpire
#NetGalley

[Nina Moskowitz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have mixed feelings about this one. I think the idea of combining The Little Mermaid with the legend of Atlantis is so exciting, and provides room for a lot of twists, if done well. However, there were some issues with the construction of this novel, as well as some elements that were not my preference, which dropped my rating.

To begin, this book was extremely difficult to get into. In the first 10 pages of the text, I believe there is only one line of dialogue. The remainder is entirely description of the setting and protagonists. While I always love good world-building, dumping an assload of exposition at the beginning, without breaking it up at all for plot movement or simply the ease of your reader to navigate more than just pages of locational detail, is not a great move. Also, purely from a petty standpoint, I read the following line in the first few pages, and felt like the oxymoron of it made a pretty bad first impression on me for the book: “[This was] a unique skill we all had”... Something can’t be universal and also unique. Sorry.

In terms of themes and tropes for the book: I hate love triangles. They stress me out and aren’t my cup of tea. By the end of the book, they do tell you who the endgame MMC is and who the villain is, but reading through the tension of a choice like that will always put me off. Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the heavy religious element that ran through the text. The dedication is a huge indication of how much of a presence faith would have as a theme in the book. This is fine in general; I include faith in my own writing, but the delivery felt extremely heavy handed in some parts, almost randomly but compulsively included. I somehow missed the Christian detail when requesting this ARC, so I do not consider this to be a deterrent or contributor to my rating. It is just more of a personal choice thing, and I wanted to mention it for transparency to others who intend to read it.

Overall, I don’t think the bones of this book were bad, but the execution fell a bit flat for me, and nothing about the story felt innovative enough for me, given what the author had to work with. I didn’t feel surprised by anything, and had some issues with the technical construction of the writing. The love triangle and heavy elements of faith were also personal deterrents, but I wouldn’t view them as a reason to dock stars in general. In total, I give this 2.5 ⭐, rounded to 2 on Goodreads.

*Thank you again to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.*

[Tori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 4/5
I received eARC for my honest opinion.

I liked that this book had a retelling of The Little Mermaid in it. I thought that it was similar but different in its own way and I love reading retellings like giving you the tale that you love but changed. When I came across this book I loved the cover right away, and I liked the synopsis. I loved that you had a young mermaid that just wanted to forge her own path and discover the world out there. If only she could get rid of the new guard that her father trusted to watch over her. However, you never know what fate might have in store for you and what you were looking for that whole time was right in front of you.

This book was fun and never a dull moment. I found myself laughing at the banter and all the missed chances of trying to sneak out. I know a lot of the people in the reviews stated that they didn’t like the Christian fiction in it, but I didn’t mind it at all. I didn’t feel like that was what the book was all about, but it was something that the characters felt strongly about but not like it was thrown into your face. I thought the author did a great job at keeping her readers interested throughout the whole book, she made sure that there was not an info dump on you. The writing style made it easy to read and the pace was perfect for me, I was able to finish this book in one day. The romance was definitely a slow burn, just the way that I like it. I liked that Aria took her time to really see what kind of life she would want, and I liked that Bastian was okay with that and encouraged her to take her time.

I found that all the characters were easy to connect with and I was able to relate to Aria. I liked the fact that she was a strong character, but at the same time she was naive about things. I liked that she was not scared to learn new things, but I also liked that she was embarrassed when she did things that weren’t right. She felt more real to me. My favorite character was Bastian, I liked that he was able to laugh and have fun, I liked that he was willing to let people figure out how they felt about things instead of trying to force what he wanted. He really is a great prince.

I would read another book by this author and I hope that you will give this book a chance like I did. If you like retellings, fantasy, romance, mermaids, princes and princesses, and some Christian fiction you should read this book.

I want to thank NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for the opportunity to review this book.

[Liz (Quirky Cat) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars rounded up.

Book Summary:

Aria has never quite felt at home beneath the deep blue sea. Sure, merfolk are supposed to be happy living in the city, but Aria dreams of more. Life outside the city limits. A life of her own. So when she finds a secret and forgotten map, she knows what she needs to do.

Unfortunately, Aria's father has a different opinion. Still, he lets her go – on the condition that she take along one of his warriors as her protector. Together, these two are about to stumble upon the unthinkable.

My Review:

I love a good Little Mermaid retelling. Unfortunately, I don't think A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire is the one for me. Or maybe I'm not the one for it? The biggest problem is that I missed the label as a Christian fantasy, which significantly changes the connotation of the tale. At least it does for this one!

To be clear, I don't have a problem reading a book with religious subtext. The problem is that A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire took it beyond subtext. This kept throwing me out of the story, making for a more jarring experience than I had hoped.

Likewise, while the romantic plot had a lot of potential (I love enemies-to-lovers), I feel like this one fell short. It was okay, but it would have been better without the love triangle (that's probably my bias showing, though, as I am not a fan of love triangles).

Highlights:
Mermaids
Romantic Fantasy
Retelling
Enemies-to-Lovers

Thanks to BooksGoSocial and #NetGalley for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

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[Cáit]

# The Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire

The Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire by Lydia D
Book 1
Spoiler free
3⭐️ (2.5 rounded up)
Teen/YA, Fantasy, Romance
Single POV

— enemies to lovers

— fairytale retelling

— self discovery

This book is described as being “inspired by the little mermaid and the legend of atlantis“ and I also noticed some similarities to “the Prince of Egypt” as well.

We meet Aria, the crown princess of Merfolk and daughter to an overprotective King. She has a curious rebellious nature, and seeks adventure and purpose. Along her journey she meets a number of potential romantic interests. We’re promised enemies to lovers & a HEA, which is often what many seek in a romantic fantasy.

If you’re reading this book due to your interest in authors like Sarah J Maas/Stephanie Garber, please note that the similarities to the authors is due to the fantasy/fairytale nature of this novel, and not necessarily the writing style.

LIKES:
• enemies to lovers trope (though there could have been more tension and some degree of a build-up)
• seeing the different kingdoms
• multiple sources of conflict (government-to-citizens, character-to-character, environment-to-world)
• unconditional love
• some of the side characters were very interesting and i would’ve loved to hear more about them

DISLIKES:
• there were some typos, another round of editing may be necessary
• needed to pull harder at my emotional strings, there was a lot going on but the main plot’s stakes didn’t seem as high as the b-plot’s.
• i would have liked some clarity on decision making process for the FMC it felt she was sometimes impulsive in a way that didn’t align with her inner narrative.
•i feel some of the religious messages could’ve been more seamlessly inserted, in a way that felt less stiff and forced (i think it’s possible to get these messages across in a way that can appeal to people from different backgrounds while retaining the religious values of the author)

[AnnaScott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to love this book so much. The Little Mermaid plus Atlantis had my 90s-baby heart so excited, plus the cover is gorgeous. Unfortunately it fell a bit flat.

To start with, while the story is marketed as a mashup of The Little Mermaid and Atlantis, when in reality, it is a mashup of The Little Mermaid, Atlantis, the book of Revelation, and stories of the early church. The whole reason that Aria went to Atlantea was because the end of times prophecies were starting to come true and she wanted to see if Atlantea had any solutions. (Spoiler alert, this is left almost completely unresolved at the end.) Long story short, the end of the world is coming because humans and merpeople are being so immoral. The comparison between Atlantea and America were a bit too pointed, with men in the women's bathrooms, mentions of population control, and discussion about the disregard for unborn life. While I generally love a good parallel, this one was too obvious and didn't feel like it fit the story.

Second, the pacing felt off. They jumped from action scene to action scene without any transitions, and I think the author forgot that readers don't have access to her brain when they are reading this, because there are so many contextual details and explanations that are left out. It was a bit challenging to keep up with the plot and the world building as a result.

Finally, Aria was just a hard character to like. I wanted to like her, but she kept knowingly making bad decisions without really attempting to justify them. And Sebastian (her guardian) just keeps picking up her pieces and falling in love with her, even though she betrays him multiple times. It just felt a bit unrealistic and hard to relate to.

Overall, this book had a lot of potential. I loved the concept, but it felt like reading a rough draft.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley. All thoughts and opinions are entirely my own, and I am writing a voluntary review.

[Marie -The Reading Otter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review:
2.5 Stars
I received this book from NetGalley for review

Seeing two different synopsis after reading this, one saying that it's a retelling, the other saying it's inspired by The Little Mermaid. Both are a little misleading.
The only thing this book has anything in common with The Little Mermaid is the Mer-people, and she collects things from the human world. Beyond that, this book shares little with the original tale.

I overlooked the "Christian Fiction" part of the synopsis, and usually, I don't read that sub-genre because it can be a little heavy-handed, and even though there were moments when it started to, it wasn't overtly "preachy". It did take away some of the immersion for me, and it did make the book read a little younger than intended. I kept forgetting how old the MC, Aria, is meant to be.

The pacing is where I had the most issues with this book, a lot of it felt meandering. And I didn't really like the MC for most of the book. Her personality of wanting to explore felt a little forced in a way. She didn't come across as headstrong the way I think she was meant to. Not to me at least. Her sneaking around and risking her life of her bodyguard without any care, came across as selfish.

The world-building was very surface-level as well. Their culture and society are only viewed through Aria's POV, and she's self-described as being sheltered. So all the politics is never talked about, or shown. A lot is just vaguely implied. I also don't know if this could be called merpeople, as they spend little time actually in the water with their tails, swimming. They spend most of their time walking around with legs in an underwater castle. I think this book could have benefited from being dual-pov with the bodyguard Sebastian.

[Realview Reads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Firstly, thank you to the author, the publishing company and NetGalley for allowing me access to an ARC of this book.

My review

May contain minor spoilers.

I was really excited by this book when I first came across it, and I was instantly pulled in by the stunning cover art. I love stories about mermaids/sirens/seafarers and this being a story based on a retelling of The Little Mermaid and the legends of Atlantis, it was an instant read for me!

However I am only able to give this book a rating of 2 out of 5 stars. And here's why.

Unfortunately I found it very hard get into this story, I wasn't desperate to pick it up and read it to find out what happens next, I was also unable to connect with the characters. I really wanted to love the main character Aria, but a lot of the time quite honestly I found her frustrating.

As this story is a retelling I didn't expect it to be entirely original, which is perfectly fine with me, but I think the names of the characters would have been better if their names weren't so close to the original Disney film, Aria is too close to Ariel and the King's most trusted guard/Aria's protector is called Sebastian, so it was hard not to think of him being a crab everytime his name popped up. Although his name is later shortened in the book to "Bastian".

The world building was at a good level however there is plenty of room for improvement, especially when writing about a magical underwater worlds or civilizations.

However I don't want to end on a negative note so I will mention the one thing that I liked the most about this story. I was quite intrigued about Aria's mother's tales that she would tell her as a child, i was made to feel the way that Aria was feeling for a little while despite finding it very hard to connect with her so this really helped to enhance my reading experience in a more positive way.

[Pattricia Mesa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The hype around mermaids has been rekindled with the release of the latest version of The Little Mermaid. As a result, this book has caught the attention of many readers. I was drawn to it not only because of the beautiful cover, which I must say is a masterpiece but also because the synopsis promised a perfect blend of two amazing myths. However, what I didn't realize before requesting the book was the amount of unfavorable reviews that the story has. The marketing team cleverly placed only the best reviews on the front, bypassing that the average rating for the story is only two stars.

My rating of "A Meramid Tale of the Lost Empire" is based on the lack of narrative that the story offers. Although the story has a good premise, the fantasy is lost in the pages. The world-building was insufficient and the dialogues felt forced, lacking the necessary connection and tension between the main characters to evoke any feelings in readers.

Before reading the book, I was aware that it was a Christian fantasy and I was perfectly fine with that. However, the way religion was incorporated into the story was not to my liking. We have Keira Cass, a Christian author who writes fantasy and includes her beliefs in all her stories; therefore I know that it is possible to successfully combine Christian themes with fantasy elements without making it feel like a mandatory Bible study. I feel that the portrayal of religion in this particular story was too heavy-handed and disrupted the flow of the narrative.

I hope the author has success in future endeavors. Hopefully, in the future, she will write something more aligned with my taste.

[Lisa Konet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book and read it in a few days. Some of the plot mirrors "The Little Mermaid." but with the rest is very different. Aria, our main character yearns to find out about the mysterious city of Atlantea where him died. Her father, hires someone to watch out for her safety named Sebastain. Sebastain is a little harsh and very strict and follows Aria everywhere. Can they fight their attraction to each other?

Aria makes the harrowing swim to Atlantea and is intrigued by prestige and glamour of the city. Aria is thrust into a relationship with a very snobby prince because she is fighting her feelings for Sebastain. She also fights to save someone who has become an unexpected friend in the new, dangerous city. Aria is pulled in all directions. Does she stay in Atlantea or listen to her heart?

I loved that the mermaids in this book are very different. I did not think this was a Christian thriller book at all but more of a women's thriller romance. I was suprised how much I liked this. Aria and Sebastain have major chemistry. This book was well written and full of surprises. I would definitely read more from this author.

Highly recommended and surprising read. Thanks to NetGalley, Lily D and Books Go Social for an ARC in exhcnage for honest review.

Available: 11/1/2023

[Adrianna Heaney-velu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aria, princess of the merfolk, always dreaming of worlds beyond her own. As she sneaks away for her adventures, her father has posted her with a personal guard, Bastian. With a map she has found to Atlantea she slips past Bastian to go to this place above the water. Once there she meets Prince Atlas and is determined to make the most out of her newfound freedom. A sheltered princess she strives to build relationships and connections with the people she meets and always thinks the best of everyone but when things go wrong who can she really trust?

“A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire” by Lily D. was very fun to read. I really liked her spin on the little mermaid and the characters from it with two love interests. I loved how the city above the sea was modern with its technology. I did not like however that the mermaids believe in the Christian God, which in my opinion takes away from the magical aspect. One of my favorite things about the books was the characters, Bastian and Prince Atlas which were unexpected from what I thought they would be. I gave it a 4 out of 5 stars and really want to read more of her books.

[PorcupinePup · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a bit hard to finish. I found myself captivated in the beginning half and towards the end it became a bit predictable and I was eager for it to end. I’m not exactly sure how to describe it, but even though the author is a good writer, I do think she sacrificed the story in order to make the grand moral she was trying to teach very clear. I like the religious perspective, but the way it was executed made the characters one dimensional into the roles I knew she was trying to portray to get her point across. Which made the story much less interesting. Bastion, the forgiving and unconditional loving type, was too perfect. Aria, portraying the young and foolish type in search of meaning, had a character arc that was so predictable and neat. The scenes with the villain were ones I skimmed. The underwater kingdom was a refreshing setting and I did enjoy the word building! But maybe this type of book is not for me.

**I received a complimentary ARC and all opinions expressed are my own.**

[Jordan Charlesworth AKA Book Brilliance Xo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book Review 📚
A Mermaid Tale of The Lost Empire by Lily D - 4/5 ⭐

There's nothing I love more then a retelling that is a completely different kind of story to the original. I can promise you Lily D made this entirely different to what we know as The Little Mermaid. The whole feel from the book gives me SJM vibes also!

The writing style physically sucked me in, it's not overbearing and full on but it's now slow and easy either. It's a really great read. Thankfully it's not to full on "the little mermaid" and has nice features of its own story.

I loved the relationships throughout the book and the little love triangle that was happening. I'm not normally a love triangle person but this one actually really sold me and I couldn't decide on who I wanted to win the heart of Aria.

All in all it was a beautiful read and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing. Thank you to NetGalley and Books Go Social for allowing me to read this ARC - this is an HONEST review from my own personal opinion

[Tatiana Rivera · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unfortunately this book was not a favorite, I can’t exactly say I enjoyed it..

It took me two tries to get through this book, I DNF it on the first go and tried again after some time. I’m able to say that my opinion does not change on this story, I just did not enjoy it.

It had all the potential to be such a great and unique story but it was very poorly executed. It was meant to be a retelling of The Little Mermaid, and as someone who absolutely loves that film, I am unsure if I expected too much from the book or if it just was not worth the read in general.

I felt the “chemistry” between characters and love interests were not authentic and a bit forced into the reader. This could also be a sensitive subject for those who may not be religious, as it did have many religious aspects to it.

It’s my personal opinion that this book was just not eye catching to me, and quite frankly very difficult to read through, as it took me two tries.

[Friederike · Rating 1 out of 5]

I received a free ebook of this book on Netgally in exchange for an honest review.

Sadly, this book was not for me. I loved the premise of a little mermaid x atlantis retelling but A Mermaid Tale of the Lost Empire could not live up to my expectations. Aria, the protagonist, as well as the other characters felt hollow somehow – as if they were an idea that hasn't been thought through. The world-building was superficial: it seemed pretty on the first glance but lacked depth and detail as soon as you started to look closer. Overall this applies to the plot as well: stakes that appear to be high in the first place turn out to be things that are easily solved. Things are just too convenient and fall into place easily. For example unlike the original Arielle, Aria can just turn her fin into legs to walk on land. She doesn't have to give up anything.
Last but not least the religious aspects weren't for me. I missed the part about the Christian Fiction in the discription so this could've been avoided but still – this book was just not my cup of tea at all.